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HONG KONG'S WATERSHED: The 1967 Riots. [By] Gary Ka-wai Cheung. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2009. viii, 241 pp. (B&W photos.) US$30.00, paper. ISBN 978-962-209-089-7.
Based on an earlier Chinese-language version that has been revised to incorporate recently declassified British files, Gary Cheung's Hong Kong's Watershed is the best account of one of the most turbulent and controversial periods in Hong Kong's history. In May 1967 a labour dispute at a factory led to six months of violence. Inspired by the Cultural Revolution, local leftists rioted, planted bombs, and struggled with the colonial police. More than 50 people were killed, at least 800 were injured, and more than 5000 were arrested and jailed, often without trial. Almost 2000 people were convicted of a variety of offenses, ranging from rioting and possessing bombs to little more than distributing posters and leaflets. When the Hong Kong government arrested prominent leftist journalists, Red Guards in Beijing retaliated by torching the office of the British chargé d'affaires. Sino-British relations dropped to their lowest point since the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949.
The first part of Cheung's book is primarily a chronological account of the riots that draws on an impressive...